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About War

"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." Einstein

Palestine

Irish cement multinational company, CRH owns 25% share in Israel’s largest cement company, Nesher Cement. Israel’s Annexation/Segregation/Apartheid Wall (all labels are correct) snakes through the West Bank cutting off people from each other, from their farmland and from 65% of their water wells and springs.

Nearly 100,000 Palestinians are trapped between the wall and the 1967 green line, thereby placing them in no-mans land. The goal is clear: Israel wants those people to clear out of the area, thereby de-Palestinianising a further 10% of the West Bank.

Palestinians frequently organize peaceful protests against the building of the Wall, which is in its 8th year of construction and nearly complete. Usually they are met with tear gas and arbitrary arrests. Sometimes much worse happens as in the case of 16-year old Mohammad Qadus who was shot on 20 March, 2010 as he was carrying to safety his critically injured friend, Asaud Qadus, who himself had just been shot in the head. According to Stopthewall.org, of the 16 people murdered by the Israeli military in connection with anti-Wall protests since 2002, half were under the age of 18.

Just last week, 63 year old Galway resident Tommy Donnellan was violently arrested by the Israeli military while he was filming a protest in the West Bank. The Irish Times and the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign reported that the protest against the role of CRH in building Israel’s wall in the village of Bil’in had been peaceful. Despite this, Mr. Donnellan was attacked by soldiers, “his throat and shirt were grabbed, his gas mask was torn off, and after being wrestled to the ground he was arrested. During the arrest he sustained a 3 inch gash to his right leg and was bleeding heavily from his left ear, from which a piece was torn off. About two hours later he was released without charge.” Mr. Donnellan stated: ‘Thank the Lord I’m ok now. I’ve lost a chunk of my ear – but not my dignity. I was plainly in the role of journalist, videoing the proceedings; I should not have been arrested, especially in such a violent manner.’”

Mr. Donnellan condemmed the impunity and inhumanity of the Israeli occupation forces and noted how the incident ‘shines an unflattering light on the shameful activities of Irish cement company CRH, who are directly involved in the building of this monstrous wall and thus complicit in what happened to me today, and in the regular human rights abuses – including murder of anti-Wall activists – by the Israeli military in Bil’in and elsewhere.’

Despite calls from civil society to divest, CRH continues to unashamedly profit from the building of this apartheid structure as well as from the building of illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land. This year the CRH Annual General Meeting starts at 11am Wednesday May 5th, in the Royal Marine Hotel, Marine Road in Dun Laoghaire. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) is organising a protest outside. Protestors will be assembling at 10.15am at the Catholic Church plaza.

On Tuesday 23th October, the IPSC Society in NUIM are proud to present activists from the Free Gaza Movement Caoimhe Butterly, Derek Graham and Ramzi Kysia. They will speak in NUI Maynooth, building support for the Irish boat set for Gaza at the end of October.

In a landmark decision, Britain’s trade unions have voted overwhelmingly to commit to build a mass boycott movement, disinvestment and sanctions on Israel for a negotiated settlement based on justice for Palestinians.

The motion was passed at the 2009 TUC Annual Congress in Liverpool today (17 September), by unions representing 6.5 million workers across the UK.

Hugh Lanning, chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: ‘This motion is the culmination of a wave of motions passed at union conferences this year, following outrage at Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, and reflects the massive growth in support for Palestinian rights. We will be working with the TUC to develop a mass campaign to boycott Israeli goods, especially agricultural products that have been produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank.’

The motion additionally called for the TUC General Council to put pressure on the British government to end all arms trading with Israel and support moves to suspend the EU-Israel trade agreement. Unions are also encouraged to disinvest from companies which profit from Israel’s illegal 42-year occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.

The motion was tabled by the Fire Brigades Union. The biggest unions in the UK, including Unite, the public sector union, and UNISON, which represents health service workers, voted in favour of the motion.

The motion also condemned the Israeli trade union Histadrut’s statement supporting Israel’s war on Gaza, which killed 1,450 Palestinians in three weeks, and called for a review of the TUC’s relationship with Histadrut.